The Year Was… 1996

INTRODUCTION

It’s the mid-Nineties. A new-fangled auction site is starting to take the world and the internet (whatever that is) by storm. It has a stupid name: eBay. Beef flavoured super-noodles and roast beef Monster Munch disappear from the shelves as herds of cows are burning up and down the country, slaughtered due to a new disease they’re all calling ‘the mad cow’. Someone on the news has for some absurd reason cloned a sheep named Dolly and Princess Di has done the unthinkable and divorced the future King of England, Charles III!

And yet, in a tiny Square in the East End of London, events were happening that would shake people to their core; a shooting in broad daylight! A local man found dead near his potting shed! A public boycott that nearly ruins a long-standing generational business! And in the advice column of the Walford Gazette there were tales of affairs, deception, a man burdened with guilt and abandonment issues and a near-death experience for a new-born.

EVENTS

Cindy and David
Oh boy. It was only a matter of time. David Wicks and Cindy Beale had been carrying on behind Ian’s back for quite some time, but this year she finally had enough! Tired of being nobody and, wanting the danger and excitement no matter what got in her way, even Cindy should have thought better of listening to Barry and hiring a hitman. He was joking, she wasn’t and, to solve her problem, in October a shot ran out and Ian fell to the streets of Walford outside the Tube, clutching his chest as Cindy watched, agape!

Realising that this was all too real for him, David did the sensible thing- indeed a miracle in itself – and, after helping Cindy snatch Peter and Steven, he was gone, leaving Cindy enroute to Paris with her boys, lamenting that little Lucy had been left behind…

Fleeing the country, **David** has second thoughts…

The Boy Named Joe
Joe Wicks was the epitome of the word ‘pin-up’ when he debuted in the Nineties, but all this young man wanted was to bond and reconnect with his father. Unfortunately, David Wicks was really incapable of looking after himself, let alone a teenage boy, and woefully, desperately, tried to get the boy to return to his mother, ex-wife Lorraine.

**Joe**‘s mental health worried mum **Lorraine**…

What happened next was horrific, as Joe, traumatised by the death of his sister Karen developed full-blown schizophrenia, the results of which had tin foil covering mirrors and dead cats under the bed. Sarah Hills tried to help by taking him to church, but that was the last thing Joe needed and now he had Satan running around too. He became too much for David to handle and he did what he did best, fleeing into the night. He wouldn’t be seen again for a very long time…

The Fowler Family
Mark had problems with Peggy Mitchell, and for once, he was completely justified. When Grant and Peggy discovered Mark’s HIV status they went on the warpath as misunderstanding took control of the Square and Mark found his beloved fruit stall in jeopardy. Eventually Pauline and Mark shared some desperately needed medical info to Walford in the form of a public service announcement in the Queen Vic and Peggy started to soften – and needed Mark as a friend come that December when she found a lump in her breast…

**Arthur** is out of prison, but not too clever…

Unfortunately, it never rains, but it pours. After fighting to get hubby Arthur out of prison, the Fowler family reunited in May, but it was not to be. As Michelle gave birth to Mark Jr. on the other side of the Atlantic, Arthur, having suffered a blow to the head in prison, slipped away while tending the allotment, to the shock of the whole Square.

The Square turns out in force to honour **Arthur**

The Love Square
Tiffany Raymond was one of the prettiest and nicest girls you could meet. She was fun, bubbly, set the pulses racing behind the bar of the Vic and attracted all the men. So, why, in June after a bevvy or two, she went after Grant Mitchell is anyone’s guess. Of course, Tiff wanted romance, Grant wanted to get down. They were incompatible, and she moved on to Tony Hills. She was pregnant before she knew it and though she’d wised up to Grant’s temper, like Sharon before her she thought she could tame the beast and she decided to stay with him.

**Tony** couldn’t choose between **Simon**…

That was kind of okay with Tony, whether he was the father or not, as he’d also been jumping into bed with Tiffany’s brother Simon! Keeping it well and truly in the family, the boys struggled throughout the remainder of their time on the Square: Simon wanted romance, Tony wanted to get down. These Raymond kids know how to pick them, right? Why? Well, when Terry came along, we understood everything – and yet Tiffany ended the year as Mrs. Mitchell…

**Terry Raymond** displays his fatherly skills to daughter **Tiffany**…

The Other Stuff
Barry burns the car lot down again – but this time Phil is inside! Pat and Roy say, ‘I do’. Sam tries and fails to reconnect with Ricky. He ain’t ‘avin it and she bungies away again! Sarah Hills tries out new things and ends the year a raging kleptomaniac and under the sway of religious cult! Ben is born, but a near-death experience with meningitis leaves him partially deaf and Phil never sober. Alan and Carol also get married, despite her father Jim Branning’s racist views… Dodgy George Palmer, the gangster-wannabe, sets his sights on Peggy…